Last Call

BooMan has two good points here tonight:

Rather than focus on getting the Republicans to denounce their own base, a better use of energy is to lobby the media to label racism as racism. There is plenty to report. We see Republican activists and minor party leaders doing rancidly racist things almost everyday. Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are putting Father Coughlin to shame lately. Getting the media to drop their faux impartiality would be a start.

The problem is if there's anything the Village hates worse than seeming liberal, it's seeming racist. They believe that if you point out racism, you yourself must be racist. It's a no win situation for the sensationalist media, and very few of them have the balls to touch this subject.

The other thing I'd like to see the media do is to stop asking Barack Obama what he thinks about the misbehavior of every black person in this country. They didn't think it was appropriate to ask Clinton or Bush what they thought everytime a white person said something stupid or committed some crime. They shouldn't treat the president as if he is the spokesperson and personal attorney for every black person. That's a double standard that we could all do without.

Man, didn't you get the memo? Being black, I can tell you that any black person in this country is a de facto expert on the behavior of every other black person in the country, and your white friends will make a point of asking you to explain and even justify the behavior of any other black person they don't agree with. The real jagoffs will in fact personally hold you responsible for that behavior. Now, I can tell you that this goes for basically every other minority group out there, Latinos, Asians, foreign-born citizens, LGBT, Jewish, Vegan, Pagan, whatever. If somebody from that minority group does anything questionable, any other accessible member of that group will be called to account for that behavior by people who are not in that minority group.

President Obama is just the most visible person constantly put in this situation, but I can assure you that everybody does this, not just the Village idiots.

I'd wish they'd stop too.

Rocky Mountain Low

The Colorado resident arrested earlier this week on terrorism plot charges has apparently admitted ties to Al Qaeda.

Either a plea deal or charges are possible for the man, identified as Najibullah Zazi, the official said.

A spokeswoman for Zazi's attorney said Zazi began meeting in Denver with the FBI at 9 a.m. Friday for the third consecutive day, and was still there by nightfall. Zazi's father Mohammed met for three hours Friday afternoon with the FBI, then returned to his home.

The alleged terrorist plot, which came to light this week after raids in New York, may have been targeting a major transportation center, such as a large railroad or subway station, sources close to the investigation told CNN on Thursday.

There were plans for an attack, presumably in the New York area, where crowds are large and security screening for travelers who are not flying is lax, the sources said.

"While DHS and FBI have no information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack, we believe it is prudent to remind transit authorities to remain vigilant," the Department of Homeland Security said Friday in a written statement.

Two sources familiar with the investigation said that Zazi had video of New York's Grand Central Terminal, a massive junction of rail and subway lines, as well as shops and restaurants, through which pass a half-million people per day.

A former counterterrorism official briefed on the investigation said bomb instructions were found but could not say where.

Here's the crux of the issue: even if this is a completely legitimate arrest and Zazi was allegedly plotting to attack a major subway station or something in NYC, the fact that we've held people on bogus "terrorism" charges for the last eight years pretty much guarantees that we have to ask very careful and specific questions about this case.

There's no Bush administration to fault for this one, either. This is all Obama's DoJ here. Question the case, and try him in a court of law. If he cops a plea bargain, then we need to know what information was obtained.

The government has very little credibility on this issue. Obama can make a huge difference in that depending on how he reacts to this.

Sure, Why Not?

Former IMF economist Michael Mussa is as high as a kite, kids.

We all know the story: The economic recovery has begun in the United States and the rest of the world, but it will be sluggish and disappointing. Shell-shocked and over-borrowed American consumers will spend less and save more. Financial markets remain traumatized, so don't expect much of a boost from new consumer lending or corporate investing. Global trade is rebounding, but slowly, from huge declines. The only question is whether the recovery will be W-shaped (a double-dip recession), U-shaped (a slow and shallow expansion) or L-shaped (bumping along at the recession's trough). Except now comes economist Michael Mussa with a simple message: WRONG.

Mussa, a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund now at the Peterson Institute in Washington, argues that the recovery will defy the prevailing pessimism. From mid-2009 to the end of 2010, he says, the U.S. economy will grow almost 7 percent, about double the 3.3 percent gain envisioned by the 50 or so economists in September's Blue Chip Economic Indicators. The world economy will also outperform, says Mussa. In 2010, growth will rebound to 4.2 percent from 2009's decline of 1.1 percent. By contrast, the latest IMF forecast in July has a 1.4 percent drop in 2009 and a feeble 2.5 percent gain next year.

Wow. Seven percent growth. That's insane, particularly sustained over six quarters. How does Mussa come to this conclusion?

It's not that he completely rejects today's conventional wisdom. American consumers, he says, have retrenched-and will continue to do so. He thinks the personal savings rate will rise from 5 percent at the end of the second quarter of 2009 to 7 percent by year-end 2010. (Note: in 2007, it was only 1.7 percent.) Still, consumer spending will increase, albeit at a slower pace. But Mussa sees something larger driving recovery. He invokes the Zarnowitz Rule, named after Victor Zarnowtiz, a leading scholar on business cycles who died earlier this year: deep recessions have steep recoveries.

So, his reason is "just because it will."

Nice. Deep recessions have steep recoveries because the ones in the past did. This one will be no different apparently, except for all the features of the recession that strongly indicate that this recession will still result in an extended period of slow to zero growth.

Clap harder and maybe ten million Americans will get their jobs back, too.

[UPDATE 3:00 PM] Who's more clueless on the economy, Mussa or Texas GOP Gov. Rick "What recession?" Perry?

Said Perry: "As a matter of fact ... someone had put a report out that the first state that's coming out of the recession is going to be the state of Texas ... I said, 'We're in one?'"

Paul Burka of the Texas Monthly: "This gaffe is going to stick. It is going to be national news. It will come back to haunt him in a campaign spot. If Hutchison can't make something of it, the Democrats can. You cannot be callous and cavalier when people are losing their jobs and their homes. I don't care how ideological the Republican base is. Unemployment in Texas just reached the 8% mark. Everybody knows someone who is suffering in these times. Everybody has lost part of their life savings. It could cost him the race."

Only poor people and Democrats lose their jobs in a recession, you know.

Rick Sanchez Versus The 1.93 Million Invisible Teabaggers

Round one. FIGHT!



Sanchez stomps FOX News for claiming that nobody else bothered to cover last weekend's Teabaggerstock. Sanchez straight up calls them liars.

When Fox News ran a full-page ad in the Washington Post — as well as in two newspapers owned by Fox’s parent company — claiming that it had been the only network to cover the 9.12 tea party rally in Washington, DC, it was more than one CNN anchor was willing to take.

“I usually don’t suffer fools gladly,” CNN’s Rick Sanchez began. “Especially when it comes to the fools who perpetuate falsehoods. Well, today thousands of you flipped through the pages of the Washington Post, only to come up a lie so bold and so upsetting that frankly I’m just not going to sit here in silence and allow my craft or my news operation to be unfairly maligned.”

Over a large photo of the rally, the ad asks, “How Did ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC and CNN Miss This Story?”

“Enough is enough,” Sanchez went on, sounding as though he had been taking lessons in righteous indignation from Keith Olbermann. “And yes, I’m talking to you, Fox News. You, who claim to be fair and balanced. At what, I wonder? … They are saying we did not cover this story. They are using a lie to try and divide people into camps. … That’s an offense to myself and my colleagues, who risked their lives in Iran and Afghanistan and around the world to bring the news.”

I wonder how long Rick's got before he gets Froomkined?

Orly? Ya Rly!

Via the Rumpies, the train wreck that is Orly Taitz continues to derail. You'd think after getting smacked down by a federal judge not once but twice this week, the second time the judge giving her 14 days to come up with a reason NOT to slap her with a $10,000 fine that the woman would call it a day and beat a hasty retreat.

Not Orly. Ya Rly! With her own client throwing her under the bus and wanting out of the plummeting plane crash that is Orly's "legal career", it looks like she may have finally bitten off more than she can sue.

Gosh, I almost feel sorry for her.

Almost.

The First Lady Joins The Obamacare Fight

Michelle Obama has entered the fray with a speech on how one of the major reasons the current health care system needs to be reformed is that it is a "crushing" level of responsibility that falls dispropotionately on women nationwide.

Michelle Obama said women are being “crushed by the current structure of our health care” because they often are responsible for taking care of family illnesses, arranging checkups and monitoring follow-up care.

“Women are the ones to do it,” she said to an audience of 140 people, including representatives from groups such as the Women’s Chamber of Commerce and the National Council of Negro Women. “Mothers are the ones that do it. And many women find themselves doing the same thing for their spouses.”

Women also are more disproportionately affected by the lack of insurance options because they are more likely to work part-time or at small businesses that don’t provide coverage.

“It’s not surprising that so many millions of women are simply going without insurance at all,” Obama said.

And that's a valid point, especially the part-time work meaning no employer health coverage, and not every woman has a spouse to get health coverage from, as well. Plenty of single mothers forgo coverage for themselves to get coverage for their children, for example.

Naturally, the Wingers are snidely attacking the First Lady's speech, saying that Michelle Obama is merely playing the gender card, and of course there's the nasty little gremlin that wingers like to bring up saying that whenever you have a single mother situation, whatever the problem is has to be the single mother's fault for being a single mother and not having a man around...especially if the single mother is a minority.

Gosh, there hasn't been this level of disrespect for a First Lady since Hillary, I'd imagine. It's funny, because whenever a Republican First Lady champions women's rights, she's lauded by both the left and the right as a "living legend".

Michelle Obama merely gets brutally attacked.

The Obama Derangement Syndrome doesn't stop at just Barack, you know.

StupidiNews, Weekend Pirate Day Edition!

Arhhhhhhh maties! It be time for the StupidiNews!

• September 19 is International Talk Like A Pirate Day, me hearties!
• Iraqi contractors are gettin' into the spirit by gettin' into the spirits, tradin' weapons for grog.
• The scurvy dogs at ACORN have their history of wenching and debauchery as well.
• The G-20 nations are trying to figure out just what constitutes piratical levels of pay in the banking industry.
• And digital content companies are fighting their own battles against piracy, but are the ones pillaging customer's wallets.

And who says piracy is dead in 2009? Not me, ye landlubbers. So happy Talk Like A Pirate Day to all, even the bilge-suckin' Wingnuts.